The Emergence of Islamic Feminism: An Overview https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10795699

The Emergence of Islamic Feminism: An Overview

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The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 15, Issue-I, February 2024 ISSN: 0976-8165
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Shakespeare’s Rome and Egypt and their People in Antony and Cleopatra:
A Critical Analysis
Dr. Ningombam Sanjay Singh
Assistant Professor,
Department of English,
Indraprastha College for Women,
University of Delhi.
Article History: Submitted-26/12/2023, Revised-14/02/2024, Accepted-20/02/2024, Published-29/02/2024.
Abstract:
William Shakespeare’s Antony & Cleopatra (1606) has been viewed as a Roman history,
a heroic drama and a monument to romantic passion. The play is appreciated primarily for its
splendid representation of human life in political, moral, sexual, sensual, feminine wiles of
Cleopatra, sensuality, emotional excess, politics versus love, and transcendent themes. Edward
Said’s Orientalism (1978) contends that the portrayal of the Orient in Western texts was a sort
of discourse based on a transcendental dichotomy between the West and the Orient that
designated Asia or the East, geographically, morally, and culturally by scholars from Europe
who depicted what they saw or imagined about the Oriental and its people. Considering the
portrayal of the Occident and the Occident in the play, this paper aims to argue that Rome and
Egypt’s oppositions are far from being abstract or universal. Rather the oppositions are closely
linked to the preservation of the Orientalist discourse in Renaissance Europe. The first part of
the paper describes the theoretical assumption, the second deals with the textual analysis and
the last part informs the critical observation in the play.
Keywords: Cleopatra, Antony, Egypt, Rome, Orientalism, Orientalist-discourse.
I
Lexically, the word ‘Orientalism’ derives from the word ‘Orient’, and Orientalism was a
school of scholars primarily from Western European places who visited the Middle East and
North Africa. These scholars recorded what they saw in these places, and, at times, their
depictions were romanticised. It also referred to a branch of scholarship dated from the great
expansion of scholarship in Western Europe from the time of the Renaissance onwards. In the
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past, the Orientalists engaged with only one discipline—philology and the Middle East places.
Over the following years, the geographical areas associated with the earlier Orient changed by
extending to far places, such as India, China and other places in the East. It then became the
European colonial masters’ well-defined cultural and political discourse. The concept of
Orientalism gained critical attention after the publication of Edward Said’s Orientalism in
1978. Said contends that Orientalism is a discourse based on a transcendental dichotomy
between the West and the Orient. It has become an academic tradition of study, teaching and
writing about the Orient, a kind of discourse formed on “ontological and epistemological
distinctions made between the Orient and the Occident” (Kennedy 21). Said further argues that
the choice and formation of “Oriental” was canonical which was employed by the canonised
writers, such as Chaucer, Mandeville, Shakespeare, Dryden, Pope and Byron, who designated
Asia or the East, “geographically, morally, and culturally” (Said 31). Orientalism being a
discourse, anybody in Europe could talk and be understood about an Orient’s cultural forms
and atmosphere. With systematic approaches by embracing politics, cultures and historical
contexts, Orientalism promotes a sort of ideas that associate the Orient with a place of
passionate romance, exotic cultures, and mystical landscapes to define Europe or the West as
its contrasting images and personalities. Several terms were used to express the relationship
between the Orient and the West: “The Oriental is irrational, depraved (fallen), childlike,
different: thus, the European is rational, virtuous, mature and normal” (ibid…40).
William Shakespeare’s Antony & Cleopatra (1606) has been viewed as a Roman history,
a heroic drama and a monument to romantic passion. The play is appreciated primarily for its
splendid substantial hieroglyph, a representation of human life in political, moral, intellectual,
sexual, sensual, spiritual and instinctive terms that has raised conflicting judgements and
emotions (Brown 21). Traditional criticism appreciates the play for its poetic descriptions of
romance, emotion, reason, passion, imagery, feminine wiles of Cleopatra and the importance
of public duty over passion. The play symbolises Rome with reason and public duty and Egypt
with sensuality and emotional excess. Informed by Said’s reading on Orientalism described in
the above paragraph, this paper aims to analyse that Rome and Egypt’s oppositions are far from
being as abstract or universal as traditional criticisms consider so. Rather, this paper intends
to emphasise that the oppositions are closely linked to the preservation of the Orientalist
discourse in Renaissance Europe.

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II
Antony & Cleopatra is one of the most popular plays by Shakespeare that shows
passionate love and romance. Having defeated Julius Caesar’s assassins, a triumvirate, Mark
Antony, Octavius Caesar and Lepidus rule the Roman Empire. In Alexandria (Egypt), Antony
is enchanted by its queen Cleopatra. This debauched behaviour of a Roman ruler causes
dissension between Octavius and Antony. Meanwhile, a dissatisfied senator challenges the rule
of the triumvirate and Antony’s wife (Fulvia) dies. Antony returns to Rome and then he marries
Octavius’s sister Octavia for political alliances and benefits. Cleopatra becomes furious on
learning about the marriage of Antony and Octavia. Later in the play, Antony returns to
Cleopatra after war breaks out between Octavius and Antony. She accompanies him to the
Battle of Actium, where it becomes a disaster for Antony and his army. Both of them return to
Egypt, pursued by Octavius. After Antony’s close aids have taken sides with Octavius, Antony
is defeated in Alexandria. Cleopatra sends him a false report stating that she has died of suicide.
Believing it to be true, Antony attempts to kill himself which renders him brutally wounded.
He is brought to Cleopatra and dies in her arms. To avoid being captured by Octavius, Cleopatra
kills herself with a poisonous snake. Such a scant summary of the play does little to justify the
twists and turns in the play, but it is noticeable that the passionate love of Cleopatra and Antony
and the interaction of the West and the East are depicted in the play to reinforce the Orientalist
discourse in Renaissance Europe.

Setting and its people’s activities
Traditional criticism appreciates this play for its heroic drama, romantic passion, and
representation of political life. By examining the representation of various places and the
different activities in these places, this paper highlights that the oppositions are closely linked
to constructing contrasting images and personalities of the Occident and the Orient. The first
part of this section analyses various places and the latter part the activities of characters in these
places. Regarding the geographical and historical setting, the Western empire in the play is
associated with rich names and glittering catalogues creating an atmosphere of imperial
magnificence. Scenes occur at Rome, Messina, Syria, Athens, Actium and other places:
“Extended Asia: from Euphrates/His conquering banner shook, from Syria/To Lydia, and to
Ionia” (I.II.97-100)1. They also command over the sea “rid all of the sea of pirates” (I.II.183)

1 Textual references from William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Edited by M.R. Ridley. London:
Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1951.
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and “He is an absolute master” (II.II.164). The Western protagonists are referred to as
superhuman. Caesar is considered ‘the universal landlord’ while Antony is addressed as ‘the
greatest prince o’ the world’. This world seems dull in Antony’s absence “no better than a sty”
and when Caesar hears of Antony’s death, he thinks: “The death of Antony is not a single doom,
in the name lay/A moiety of the world” (V.I.16-17). This geographical description implies the
Western empire’s magnificent and human grandeur. Antony has been idealized more than any
person on earth.
However, Antony, ‘the greatest prince of the world’, changes his temperaments and
values once he is in Alexandria (the Orient). He is no longer an ideal ruler as per the Roman
standard. Antony’s passion is primarily depicted as lust, the lower elements of physical passion
and physical indulgences. His life with Cleopatra is composed of love and feasting. Enobarbus
cries:
Bring in the banquet; wine enough
Cleopatra’s health to drink
(I.II.11)
Mine and most of our fortunes, tonight
Shall be—drunk to bed
(I.IV.45)
Antony “fishes, drinks and wastes/The lamps of night in revel” (I.IV.5). He also engages
in “lascivious wassails” (I.IV.56). Pompey prays that Cleopatra may keep Antony from the
wars: “Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts/Keeps his brain fuming: Epicurean cooks…”
(II.1.27). In one of the scenes in the play, a party goes on with music sounding, more and more
riotous in humour, conviviality and song showing there is fun and feasting yet the party has
less gravity as compared to the Alexandrian and Egyptian feasts: “This is not yet an
Alexandrian feast/It ripens towards it” (II.VII.95) and “Shall we dance now the Egyptian
Bacchanals/And celebrate our drinks” (II.VII.104).
Besides feasting and merry-making, physical eroticism happens in the Orient
(Alexandrian). Here, the protagonists no longer have control over their passions and everybody
talks and discusses sex boldly. At the beginning of the play when he is in a Western empire,
Antony talks of cooling “a gypsy’s lust” (I.I.10) but later in the play, Mecaenas talks of “the
adulterous Antony” (III.IV.93). When tragedy overtakes him, Antony abuses Cleopatra for her
impurity: “this foul Egyptian…triple–turn’d whore (IV.XI.23, 26). The scale of sensuous and

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erotic increases after the play shifts its setting to the Orient. Charmian talks and discusses sex
freely with the soothsayer: “Then belike my children shall have no names…how many boys
and wenches must I have?” and “And fertile every wish, a million” ((1.II.34, 36). Cleopatra’s
ladies devote most of their time to physical love and they emphasise ‘fertile’ only. Her palace
has been given all the perceived ‘Oriental’ settings, the nakedness of her slaves that have
serpentine and ungodly attraction: “Horrible villain! I’ll spurn thine eyes” (II.V.63). It is
evident that the Occident and its people are shown to be magnificent, virtuous, and rational
whereas the Orient and its people to be mysterious landscapes, exotic and sensuous. To quote
Said, such representation of the Orient as fallen, childlike, erotic, remarkable experiences and
romance enable the Occident to be rational, mature, virtuous and normal (39).

Forms of communication
Based on the style of language that the characters in the play utter, the difference between
Rome and Egypt is further divided. Human beings do not use only words for communication
to share and exchange information, views, opinions and information. A complex system
consisting of several forms of non-verbal communication is involved in communication. Voice,
body sounds and gestures continue to form a wide range of activities. If one’s communicative
system depends on two interdependent units, voice and body, the play assigns voice alone to
Rome and body alone to Egypt. Rome is shown to be a place of words whereas Egypt is where
love is made. Close physical, tactile and embracing contact constitute the mode of everyday
communication and existence in Egypt. When Antony embraces Cleopatra on stage, their
bodies unite, the word ‘thus’ and its concomitant gesture stands for ‘embrace’. Characters in
Egypt focus on a simple matter of body alone, of sexual coupling, of doing, ‘thus. One tends
to use language not for rational discourse but rather as a physically luxurious thing, for
sensuous. Even a messenger says: “Rain thou they fruitful tidings in mine ears/That long time
have been barren” (II.V.23-24). In short, in Egypt, non-verbal language speaks potently,
however silently. “I know by that same eye there’ some good news,” tells Cleopatra to Antony
(I.III.19). Thus, apart from the world of tastes, textures and perfumes, the language in Egypt is
the silent language of the body whose covert meanings usurp over utterance, however exotic
and erotic.
On the other hand, Rome is shown to be Egypt’s direct opposite. If Egypt emphasizes the
body that symbolises the womanly powers of Cleopatra, Rome appears to be a place of words
that stands for manly prowess. Octavius expresses concerns with discursive verbal matters and
Antony’s ‘unmanly’ behaviour: “…not more manlike…More womanly than he” (I.IV.5,6). In
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Rome, there are precise distinctions between the people; each accords a distinct role in the
community. The scene (II.II) in which Antony, Caesar and Lepidus meet to resolve their
differences shows that they talk and use language primarily for developing political
relationships. It also shows that the relationship between men and women is only a politically
convenient marriage, for example, the marriage prospect between Antony and Octavia
(II.II.117-121, 137-140). In Rome, marriage is considered to be an institution to be admired
while in Egypt it is a “dead”.
The speech of Antony and Caesar that represents Egypt and Rome respectively shows
that both of them have different purposes of their speeches. There may be no direct reference
to the defeat, but the language is such that it conveys Antony has been defeated in the battle.
He wishes to be stronger in the next encounter, but in the same breath, it suggests that he should
fill up his time with more pleasure. He may dwell in his past glory for a fleeting moment but
his predominant emotion is to seek pleasure (III.XIII.177-185). Caesar’s speech in comparison
is unemotional, despite the fact he is noticing Cleopatra’s death. It is difficult to know how he
feels about the death of the two lovers. It is felt that he is simply carrying out the formalities of
a ceremonial death without having an inkling about the magnificence of the tragic death of
Antony and Cleopatra (V.II.361). This shows the Roman tradition of honour and duty and those
who are brought up in the environment of Egypt. Antony may have been brought up in the
traditions of honours and duty of Rome but his living in Egypt, as the play shows, has taken
away the ‘Roman tradition’. As a result, his sensibilities as such are naturally inclined towards
seeking pleasure and love.
Through the characterisation of Cleopatra, the play further deepens the difference
between the Orient and the Occident. “Cleopatra” and “Egypt” are synonymous in the play.
She is addressed as “Egypt”: “I, dying, Egypt, dying” (IV.XV.18). The Orient has been always
considered to be a place full of explosive passions, and so is Cleopatra in the play. Despite her
queenship, her world is full of love-bitten. After she has fallen in love with Antony, her mental
horizon is based on infinite love. She sends messengers daily to Antony. Day and night, she
always thinks of Antony and even music cannot relieve her longing: “Give me some music,
moody food/Of us that Trade in Love” (II.V.2). The war between Caesar and Antony does not
matter anything to her. She is absorbed in love; she waits with the girls for Antony to the extent
of becoming an irresponsible queen. When Antony dies later in the play, Cleopatra considers
that the world is: “And there is nothing left remarkable/Beneath the visiting moon” (IV.XV.68).
She considers that her world is barren. However, there is a contradiction in the portrayal of the
character, Cleopatra. At times, her ‘masculinity’ traits, such as force and violence, become more
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visible though she succumbs to her ‘femineity’ traits, strong passions. She is shown to be a
tigress in wrath. She strikes the messenger who brings news of Antony (II.V.110). When Caesar
and Antony oppose each other in Act III, Cleopatra assumes the role of a warrior. She boasts
of her navy by aspiring ‘man’s courage. After the fatal action, ‘femineity’ rules her and she
bows to man’s strength (IV). Thus, through the portrayal of Cleopatra, Egypt is represented
with ‘feminine’ quality and contradictory qualities, such as a variety of shifting evanescent
moods of passion, compact of weakness and infinite pride, of strength and weakness
intertwined. In other words, Cleopatra or Egypt represents eroticism and it appears to be a
threat to the values of the West or Rome in the play.

According to Said, Orientalism is not an accidental discourse of the West but a created
and invested theory and practice that has been there for many generations. In their discourse,
the Orient is depicted to be “gullible, devoid of energy, much given to flattery, intrigue, cunning
and unkindness to animals”. They are represented in everything that opposes “the clarity,
directness and nobility of the Anglo-Saxon race” (39). Cleopatra or Egypt’s identity serves as
an adversary of Roman leaders in Egypt. Egypt itself becomes ‘feminised’ a place of political
danger and sexual fascination against whose subversive strategies Rome defines and tests its
values.

Occident and Oriental Women
In various discourses, women are depicted as a homogenous depressed group even
though their sufferings are different from each other. Likewise, the experiences of third-world
women are different from those of first-world women, and even among the third or first-world,
their experiences are different. Regarding the third-world woman (the Orient), Chandra
Talpade Mohanty’s essay, “Under Western Eyes” argues that third-world women have been
portrayed as “a singular monolithic subject” in Western texts. She argues that they have been
reduced to an “average third-world” homogenous group leading a life based on socially
constrained gendered identity. This “average third-world woman” is considered to be “ignorant,
poor, uneducated, tradition-bound, religious, domesticated, family-oriented, victimized”, etc.
She further argues that this representation is in contradiction to the image of Western women
who can control their bodies and sexualities. They are considered to be educated women having
the will and freedom to make decisions independently (65-66). In the context of the play,
Octavia (Occident) is depicted to be the opposite of Cleopatra (Orient). In Act III, there are no
emotions in Octavia’s speech. She pleads with Antony not to make war with her brother, Caesar,
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since this would cause her to split her loyalty. Her speech represents the concept of honour and
duty of the rich Roman empire. In contrast, Cleopatra’s words are overflowing with emotion.
To cite an example, for Cleopatra, love and emotion take preference over duty and honour:
“From my cold heart let heaven engender hail” (III.XIII.157). The Oriental woman (Cleopatra)
is shown to be leading an essential life based on her gender and sexualities whereas the
Occidental woman (Octavia) has control over her body and sexualities.

III
Based on Said’s Orientalism, it is evident that the play, Antony and Cleopatra, serves as
a discourse to show that the Orient is different from the Occident. The Occident (Europe) is
civilization itself with its sexual appetites under control and its dominant ethic that of hard
work, whereas the East has been represented as static, feminine, underdeveloped, inferior and
barbaric. Antony is addressed as the prince of the world. His rationality and emotions are under
control while he is in Rome, so do all people in Rome have control over their emotions and
temperaments. Antony loses his ‘Roman’ characteristics once he is in Alexandria and he
becomes like those oriental ‘irrational’ people. However, such discourse of differentiation is
vulnerable in particular when the Occident meets the Orient. Cleopatra’s (Orient) histrionics
serve as a source of empowerment. The discourse on actions and speeches of Romans promotes
a hierarchy of political order and human identity, yet Cleopatra’s histrionic intrinsic disrupts
such notion of fixity (Singh 319). It also implies the vulnerability of the Occident’s discourse
when it comes to the Orient as the Easterners are not at all passive and submissive. Homi
Bhabha argues that the colonial discourses cannot smoothly run as Orientalism might seem to
suggest (144-65). In the process of their delivery, the discourse is diluted and hybridized. The
fixed identities that the West (colonialism) seeks to impose upon both the masters and the slaves
are rendered unstable (Loomba 232). Likewise, all human categories of sexual, racial, East and
West dissolve in the union of Cleopatra and Antony. At the moment of death, Antony transcends
the rigid boundaries dividing Egypt and Rome: “I will be/A bridegroom in my death, run
into/As to a lover’s bed” (IV.XIV.99-101). Further, in her suicide, Cleopatra resolves the gender
categories, the feminine and the masculine aspects: “I have nothing/Of woman in me. Now
from head to foot/I am marble–constant” (V.II.238-239). However, the dissolving of the human
categories happens with a heavy price leading to the death of the protagonists, Antony and
Cleopatra. It shows that Orientalist stereotyping can be diluted only with death. In other,
Shakespeare might be giving a warning to those who dare to question and break the fixed
notions associated with the West and the East. Hence, it can be said that though the play has
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been traditionally appreciated for poetic description, various forms of imageries, themes of
battles, feminine aspects of Cleopatra, passionate romance, etc., the portrayal of the West and
the East in the play shows that it stimulates and preserves the Orientalist discourse. In that, the
West (Rome) stands with reason and its people are dutiful whereas the East (Egypt) becomes a
play of mystery and sensuality and its people’s prime motives to gratify sensuality. The
portrayal of the Orient as a fallen ‘other’ to the Occident might have justified the European’s
subjugation of the East in the following centuries.

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